Don't wait to build your ATE toolset
Many organizations view test equipment, and test teams for that matter, as amortizable assets that get operationally stood up on demand. Because of this, many test projects we come across, from small lab automation setups to large-scale ATE, are crammed into the backend of a release schedule. Now the team actually responsible for delivering the test systems doesn’t have enough time or information to do their best work and knowingly bite off a major maintenance burden.
Rather, testers that protect product quality and maintain compliance through data traceability require engineering rigor just as product development: design reviews, build discipline, supplier relationships, maintenance infrastructure. None of it just appears overnight
What You’ll Learn in this Article
How can test teams get ahead?
We know that the start of any test project should be building a test plan from requirements. This typically includes test coverage, spec and compliance analysis, and broader systems integration.
But we’ve also seen even the best-intentioned test teams struggle with what steps to take next while waiting on slow-to-move dependencies from product development and other teams.
The best long-view answer is to contribute engineering cycles to designing flexible test infrastructure so you have building blocks to customize, and further evolve, project over project.. What does actually this mean though? While every test group has their own unique challenges, we’ve seen a handful of practices that help teams deliver high-quality test assets even when they’re pinched for schedule:
Select instrumentation that can evolve with your roadmap
Modularity and software-defined measurements let you adapt while minimizing hardware redesigns. For this reason, and because the breadth of top-notch instrumentation, we continuously gravitate toward the PXIe platform. If a test spec changes later in the program or you need additional channels, your system has room to breathe and can incorporate the change.
Beyond modularity, the timing, synchronization, and switching capabilities of the platform simplify hardware setups.
Plan for fixturing and cabling work
While gerber files may not be readily available for final bed-of-nails layout or flying probe positioning as early as you'd like, there are other aspects of DUT fixture design and connectivity that can be worked through, such as standardized mounting patterns, connector types, and cable routing.
Coming in with a starting point allows you and your team to make customizations while getting as much engineering reuse across DUTs and test programs. Mechanical engineers experienced in fixture design continue to prove critical here for know-how around pogo connections and ergonomics.
Depending on your level of standardization, mass interconnects can further increase flexibility, but come at a pretty price point. Depending on your needs, simpler, professional cable harnesses can be much more cost effective.
Don't wait on hardware to build out your software stack
Instrument virtualization can go a long way for developing test code and abstraction layers even before receiving parts. Products like TestStand provide ready-to-use executions and data reporting engines, while allowing test teams to get reuse out of measurement and analysis libraries.
Of course there is no replacement for bringing up and testing actual DUTs, building out some of these commonized tools helps test team move faster when they are in crunch time.
Design-for-Test better next time, always
Test plans change, teams change, P&Ls change. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again. Sometimes these changes are beyond our control, but the most successful test teams we’ve seen out there are always updating their tools, outsourcing work they're not equipped to take on, and mastering their craft regardless of where they're at in the product cycle.
If you want to talk test engineering, automation best practices, or how we design ATE and lab automation stations here at Cyth, check out our upcoming events or reach out directly.